CHAPTER XIX 
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE TO ENGLAND 
Account of the Cape of Good Hope—Its settlement by the Dutch—Cape 
Town—Dutch customs—Government—Climate—General healthiness— 
Animals— Wines—Cost of living—Botanical garden—Menagerie—Settle- 
ments in the interior—Barrenness of the country—Hottentots: their 
appearance, language, dancing, customs, etc.—Money— Leave Table 
Bay — Robben Island—St. Helena—Volcanic rocks — Cultivation— 
Provisions—Introduced plants—Natural productions—Ebony—Specula- 
tions as to how plants and animals originally reached so remote an 
island—Leave St. Helena—Ascension Island—Ascension to England— 
Land at Deal. 
NOTWITHSTANDING that hydrographers limit the Cape of 
Good Hope to a single point of land on the S.W. end of 
Africa, which is not the southernmost part of that immense 
continent, I shall under this name speak of the southern 
parts of Africa in general, as far as latitude 30° at least. 
The country was originally inhabited by the Hottentots 
alone, but is now settled by the Dutch, and from the 
convenience of its situation as a place of refreshment for 
ships sailing to and from India, is perhaps visited by 
Europeans oftener than any other distant part of the globe. 
The Dutch, if their accounts can be credited, have 
also people much farther inland. They have upon the 
whole of this vast tract, however, only one town, which 
is generally known by the name of Cape Town: it is 
situated on the Atlantic side about twenty miles to the 
north of the real Cape, on the banks of a bay sheltered 
from the S.E. wind by a large mountain level at the 
top, from whence both itself and the bay have got the 
